In the opening of the film before and during the credits, Bond (Pierce Brosnan) had been tortured for 14 months in a North Korean prison, but then released on a prisoner exchange with an international N. Korean terrorist named Zao (Rick Yune). His superior M (Judi Dench) explained how she had not approved of her agent's release, since she believed he had "cracked under torture" in prison and was "hemorraging information."

Bond's license as 007 was abruptly rescinded, although
he felt he had been betrayed by a double-agent mole within MI6. Bond
escaped the medical facility (on a British ship in Hong Kong's Victoria
Harbor) to avoid being sent to the Faulklands, and talked his way into
his "usual suite" within the Rubyeon Royale Hotel.

Compliments of manager Mr. Chang (Ho Yi), "Peaceful" Fountains of Desire (Rachel Grant), a pretty masseuse, appeared at Bond's door to provide services. She instructed: "On the bed please, face down." When he kissed her and attempted to seduce her, "Peaceful" explained: "I'm not that kind of masseuse." He grabbed a hidden gun from her thigh holster, disarmed her and exclaimed: "I'm not that kind of customer."

He then shattered a large closet mirror in the room with
a heavy glass ashtray, revealing Chang and three other secret service
personnel surreptitiously attempting to film them. He knew that Chang
was part of Chinese Intelligence trying to besmirch his name with incriminating
footage. He assured Chang that as a representative of the British,
he wasn't there to take back Hong Kong.

He told Chang of his real mission
-- to track down terrorist Zao (who had killed three Chinese secret
service agents) for "a chance to get even. Zao has information I need." Bond wanted Chang's assistance to locate Zao, and was told: "I'll have to ask Beijing."

The massage with "Peaceful" was cancelled, and Chang ordered her from the room.

There were two scenes in this film that featured Bond regular Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond in her fourth and last appearance), and both were related to Virtual Reality simulations.

In the first sequence, a Virtual Reality training session
for James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), the 007 agent was in his MI6 office
in London. From the hallway he heard muffled shots and found dead bodies,
including that of secretary Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) with a
lethal bullet wound in her forehead.

In the second sequence at the
very end of the film, Miss Moneypenny was typing a news release at
her desk computer. It stated that a "freak electrical storm" had caused the ravaging of a North Korean minefield. Bond entered the office and Moneypenny straightened his tie. He kissed her, and she aggressively pulled on his tie, drawing him on top of her on her desk (she signed: "Oh, James").

As they passionately made out, gadgets-master Q (John
Cleese) interrupted Moneypenny's unscheduled VR session. Embarrassed,
she excused herself: "I was, uhm, just testing it out" and buttoned the top button on her blouse. He replied: "It's rather hard, isn't it?" She responded: "Yes, very."

Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson (Halle Berry) made a
dramatic, slow-motion entrance - first seen through Bond's (Brosnan)
binoculars from a Cuban restaurant onshore. She recreated the famous
Ursula Andress rising-from-the-sea scene from Dr. No (1962) in
a skimpy bright orange bikini.

After she strolled into the bar area, he
commented: "Magnificent view." Introducing herself (although
Bond was unaware of her occupation), she said her nickname was Jinx because
she was born on Friday the 13th. They flirtatiously chit-chatted a bit
until Bond, posing as a bird-watcher, asked if she had time - she replied
coyly: "Until dawn, what about you?...So what do predators do when
the sun goes down?" Bond responded: "They feast like there's
no tomorrow."

In the next scene that evening, the two vigorously
made steamy love, during which she asked: "Are you always this frisky?" He
replied: "I've been missing the touch of a good woman." She
opened a switchblade knife: "Who says I'm good?" and then sliced
a piece of exotic fruit for them to share.

The next day, she was revealed
to be working at cross-purposes to Bond. She took a boat from the jetty
to Isla de Los Organos, posing as a patient negotiating to have DNA replacement
therapy for $2 million, where terrorist Zao (Rick Zune) was having his
appearance altered. She killed the clinic's head Dr. Alvarez (Simon Andreu)
and blew up his office, as Bond confronted notorious terrorist Zao undergoing
treatment at the same time, but became trapped in the clinic due to the
explosion. Zao jumped from a window and escaped to an awaiting ambulance
helicopter - both Bond and "Jinx" pursued the copter as it
flew away, but Zao successfully evaded them.

She was held at gunpoint
at the clinic wall's edge - and to the amazement of two guards (and Bond),
stripped to a pink bikini before taking a backwards (CGI-assisted) escape
dive off the steep cliff into the ocean.

Jinx next appeared at diamond
merchant Gustav Graves' (Toby Stephens) Ice Palace demonstration in Iceland,
driving a dark red Ford Thunderbird. At the evening's formal event, she
met Bond at the bar, noting that she had left him "in an explosive
situation. You're a big boy. Figured you could handle yourself." She
said she was a girl "who doesn't like to get tied down."

She
introduced herself to another Bond Girl, Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike),
as Miss Swift from Space and Technology Magazine. Miranda asked: "I
take it Mr. Bond's been explaining his Big-Bang theory." She cleverly
replied: "Oh yeah, I think I got the thrust of it."

After
the evening's presentation, she stealthily blew a hole in one of the
bio-dome windows of Graves' fake diamond mine, and descended on a rope
after attaching her rope ascender-descender gadget.

Under Graves' Dream
Machine mask, she found Zao and attempted to kill him, but was zapped
with Graves' 100,000 volt Icarus control device and knocked unconscious.
She was tied down by Zao and tortured with electric shocks on a robotic
torture table with multiple laser arms. Restrained on the table, Jinx
was saved from being lasered to death by villain Mr. Kil (Lawrence Makoare)
when Bond came to her rescue, and together they coordinated Kil's death
by projecting a laser beam through the back of his skull.

As he freed
her, she admitted her true identity -- she worked for the NSA (National
Security Agency), putting them on the same side.

However, she was soon
imprisoned by Miranda and Graves in one of the ice palace's room as the
destructive Icarus laser beam was aimed at the massive structure, to
melt it and drown her. Jinx was lifeless and half-drowned in the flooded
room as Bond smashed his Aston-Martin through its doors, and she rolled
onto the top of his car's hood with the rush of water. Then he used his
sonic-agitator ring to break his windshield and drag Jinx into the car.
He drove through the outer wall of the Ice Palace, and rushed with her
body to an outdoor hot-spa, where he administered CPR mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation to save her. When she revived, she exclaimed: "What
took you so long?"

She accompanied Bond on a secret mission into
North Korea to prevent Graves' planned invasion of South Korea. Onboard
Graves' massive cargo plane, she knocked out the pilot and took the controls,
and steadied the plane when it was depressurized. She defensively fought
to the death against villainous Miranda Frost in a sword/knife battle
- after two backflips to evade Miranda, Jinx stuck a dagger through "The
Art of War" booklet and impaled it into Miranda's chest - and thrust
it deeper with a karate kick, retorting: "Read this - Bitch!"

Later,
Jinx described the killing to Bond: "I think I broke her heart." She
quipped to Bond: "Looks like we're going down together" as
the two agents faced death from the crashing fiery plane. However, just
a few feet from the ground, Bond steadied the copter and saved them,
adding: "Now, you said something about going down together?"

In
the film's final scene, Bond had landed the helicopter outside a bamboo
shack, on a bluff above a deserted beach. Jinx suggestively spoke, in
voice-over (off-screen): "Wait, don't pull it out. I'm not finished
with it yet." He responded: "See, it's a perfect fit." She
answered: "Leave it in" and Bond replied: "It's gotta
come out sooner or later."

As the camera panned to the right, they
were seen resting on the floor, with diamonds scattered all around them,
as she begged: "No, leave it in, please. A few more minutes." They
both were referring to a diamond fitted in her belly-button. As he kissed
her, he mused: "I'm still not quite sure how good you are." She
assured him: "I am so good." Bond: "Especially when you're
bad." She giggled as the screen turned to black.

This was the first Bond film with an African-American female (and Oscar-winner) as the lead Bond girl.

Mysterious blonde publicist Miranda Frost was first seen outside Buckingham Palace in London, where her boss, risk-taking adventurer and diamond merchant Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), was about to be knighted by the Queen. He had jumped from a small plane with a Union Jack parachute and landed amidst a crowd of paparazzi photographers (and Bond).

Soon after, she was spotted at the exclusive St. James's
Street club called 'Blades', where Bond was told by his thinly-veiled
lesbian fencing instructor Verity (Madonna as a leather dominatrix)
that Miranda, her "gorgeous" protege, was the "finest blade" in the club - and a gold medal winner at the Sydney Olympics (by default when her opponent OD'd on steroids).

After a prolonged sabre-sword duel between an enraged
Graves and Bond, Miranda ended it when she came between the two, after
blood was drawn from Graves' torso, and called out: "That is enough." After his defeat, Graves paid off Bond with a cheque, and invited him to a weekend "scientific demonstration" of his Icarus project in Iceland. Bond questioned Miranda: "Can I expect the pleasure of you in Iceland?" She shot back: "I'm sure you'll never have that pleasure, Mr. Bond."

However, a few scenes later, she met with Bond's superior
M (Judi Dench), serving as a new undercover MI6 agent in training with
M before her mission to Iceland to shadow James Bond - while continuing
her spying on Graves. She explained what she already know about the "wild" 00 Bond: "He'll light the fuse on any explosive situation and be a danger to himself and others. Kill first, ask questions later....A man nobody can get close to. A womanizer." She feared: "A man like him could blow my cover." She had been on the case for three months after volunteering, and claimed: "Graves seems to be clean," although Bond believed differently. During
her three years in Cryptology, M was curious why she hadn't fraternized
with any fellow agents despite frequent advances. Miranda stated it would
be "foolish" to get involved with Bond.

At Graves' Ice Palace in Iceland, she ushered Bond to
his ice suite before the formal event of the night. He forwardly asked: "Would you like to show me more?" Shortly later, when Miranda was introduced to another James Bond Girl, Jinx (Halle Berry), who identified herself as Miss Swift from Space and Technology Magazine,
Miranda asked: "I take it Mr. Bond's been explaining his Big-Bang theory." Jinx cleverly replied: "Oh yeah, I think I got the thrust of
it."

After the evening's presentation by Graves of the Icarus
satellite harnessing solar energy, Bond was detected as an intruder
by guards outside. Miranda saved him when she pulled him aside into
dark shadows and passionately kissed him - revealing herself as a fellow
MI6 agent, but also worried: "M warned me this would happen." Bond encouraged her to be more convincing with another kiss: "Come on, put your back into it." Although she followed his instruction, she also added: "Remember, I know all about you, 007. Sex for dinner, death for breakfast. Well, it's not gonna work with me." He complimented her: "You're getting good at this."

Bond convinced her to stay with him overnight in his
suite: "Keep up the charade of being lovers." As her dress dropped to the floor, she admired how he had been there for two hours before anything had blown up: "The way you're going, you'll get us both killed." She slipped naked into an ice swan-shaped bed with Bond as he told her how he had been betrayed in North Korea: "Occupational hazard." As he kissed her, she exclaimed: "This is crazy. You're a Double-O." He responded: "It's only a number." After making love to him, Miranda returned to her own room, and Bond promised to come back for her.

A little bit later, Bond held Graves at gunpoint, knowing
that he was previously rogue North Korean weapons-dealer Colonel Moon
who had used gene therapy to radically alter his appearance. Miranda
approached and held a gun on Graves -- (Graves: "Miss Frost is not all she seems." Bond: "Looks can be deceptive") -- and then swiveled her gun to face it toward Bond. She was the traitorous double-agent mole who had betrayed him in Korea (Graves: "She was right under your nose").

When Bond attempted to fire his gun, Miranda told how
she had sabotaged it when they slept together. Graves explained how
he fatally poisoned Frost's opponent in the Olympics in order to win
her loyalty (Graves: "I won myself my very own MI6 agent using everything at my disposal: her brains, her talent, even her sex" Bond: "The coldest weapon of all"). When Graves ordered Miranda to shoot and kill Bond (Miranda: "I enjoyed last night, James, but it really is death for breakfast"), he activated his sonic agitator ring to crash through the glass floor they were standing on, sending both him and Miranda to the jungle floor below, before escaping.

Later, when confronting Jinx and commenting on her martial
arts kick that flattened Zao, she boasted of her sexual exploits with
Bond: "Nice moves, just like Bond. He was pretty vigorous last
night as well." Jinx retorted: "He did you? I didn't know
he was that desperate." Miranda threatened Jinx with death and
then locked her up.

The final match-up between Jinx and Miranda came
onboard Graves' massive cargo plane. Miranda was intent on killing
her after Jinx's drowning had failed: "I'll have to try something
more to the point."

The two fought to the death in a sword/knife
battle - and she was killed when Jinx stabbed her with a dagger stuck
through "The Art of War" booklet and impaled it into Miranda's
chest - and thrust it deeper with a karate kick, retorting: "Read
this - Bitch!"